Misery Loves Company
by 8Clarify8
Summary: Amy Rose was tired of how she was seen by her peers in her home town, so she leaves at the first chance she gets to a college in a big city across the country to reinvent herself and start a new chapter of her life. It was going well, until she met Detective Shadow.
1. Chapter 1

**Misery Loves Company**

 **ShadAmy**

 **Rating:** T/M

 **Language:** English

 **Summary:** Amy Rose was tired of how she was seen by her peers in her home town, so she leaves at the first chance she gets to a college in a big city across the continent to reinvent herself and start a new chapter of her life. It was going well, until she met Detective Shadow. AU

 **Chapter 1:**

 _The kids swarmed them, their small team of heroes who protected New Mobotropolis (and the world) from Dr. Eggman.) They cheered on the team, where Sonic the Hedgehog himself would smile proudly and sign children's pictures of him. Knuckles and Tails' right by his side, with Rouge hanging off Knuckle's shoulder as she planted a big (and embarrassing) kiss on his cheek in front of the media._

 _Then there was Amy Rose, only 16 at the time, but realizing that she didn't quite fit in with the mold of the group. They were all there together because they were friends protecting their home from some egg-shaped asshole with help from the United Federation, along with G.U.N., and the Freedom Fighters. While yes, Amy was there to protect her home too—she was only there to be closer to Sonic. To help Sonic. To get Sonic to just_ notice her. _It was all terribly selfish. Rouge joined for selfish reasons as well, but she eventually grew to love protecting her friends and the townspeople, as well as developing her relationship with Knuckle's more. Amy hadn't come to appreciate it as much as Rouge had._

 _In those moments though, as fans approached them all from left and right as they came to the town square to be greeted by the Royal Family (again), Amy felt more like an outsider than a hero who helped save the town- especially at the looks that Sally and Sonic gave each other, their bashful glances and tinted cheeks._

 _After the ceremony she slipped away. Nobody noticed for a few days, but a few weeks? They had started to get concerned. Her friends called on her, and she really wanted to go with Sonic when he came and asked her for a day out, but she declined._

 _Seeing the absolute bewilderment on his face hurt her more than she would've ever thought possible, not the idea that she was turning him down for once—but that that's how he, everyone, saw_ her _. That she would jump at the chance to go out with Sonic, because she was obsessed with him._

 _It wasn't a great label to bear, and the more she became aware of her epiphany, the more uncomfortable she became even in her own skin. The dresses she wore suddenly felt wrong, or too tight. Her quills were even styled like Sonic's and she only realized how desperate that made her seem._

 _She didn't feel like the Amy Rose she knew she was, she felt like the Amy Rose, Sonic's Obsessed Not-Girlfriend that the media and everyone knew her to be. There was that word again, **obsessed**. Sure, she knew everything about him; wanted to spend as much time with him as she could (or she did), but did he know anything about her aside from the face-value stuff? Were they even _friends _?_

 _Although after another encounter with Sonic while she was at Tails' shop asking for advice on one of her devices, Sonic asked what they were talking about; It was common knowledge among their group, or at least with Tails' and Rouge it was, and Knuckles knew of her interest in Tails' work at least. Though Sonic seemed blind sided by this new knowledge of Amy's interests, he had no idea that Amy liked technology, or that she even followed Tails around like a puppy at times, read his journals and helped him work on his machines—Sonic had_ no idea _._

 _So, Amy knew then, that they weren't (actually) friends._

 _After that encounter she had thrown herself into her studies, more so than she had been before, for years. As a result, she was able to graduate on time with the rest of her peers from school._

 _Once her note of acceptance came from one of her top pick Universities, she was gone. Leaving notes for her friends, selling her house and larger items to the bank, taking only a few bags with her as she boarded the train. It took only a week for all of this to happen, but her teammates came to see her off at least._

 _Even Sonic came, but he stayed only long enough to hug her before speeding off to find the next big adventure. Knuckles left too, but Rouge and Tails stayed. Waving goodbye to her sadly as the train departed from the station finally. Amy's heart panged with guilt, wondering if she had made the correct decision—but her view of them, of her friend's, was interrupted suddenly by the tunnel that left town._

 _And now she wouldn't know until she tried._

.

.

.

.

 ** _BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP_**

The horrendous sound blared through the dimly lit bedroom, a strangled moan escaped the mass of covers that seemed to be housing some sort of life on top of the bed in the room. A pink furred hand escaped the cocoon to fish around on the bedside table for the blasting noise. Hands wrapped around the cord and yanked it from the wall, hearing the satisfying clatter as the cord hit the ground.

Amy Rose shimmied her sheets from her mussed-up head, she stared bleary eyed up at the cream ceiling. It was more like a tired glare at the least, she mustered up a sighed, rubbing her head at the headache that all too suddenly formed.

She glanced over to her alarm clock, which wasn't blinking or lighting up or anything. It was just a blank screen, haunting her. Mocking her.

Amy sighed, rubbed her eyes, and let out a loud, low groan into the room that echoed throughout her empty apartment.

"Alright Rose, you've got 6 months left. Let's do this." She said to herself, but still she didn't move.

It's going to be a long day.

 _ **A/N:**_ This is a project I'm working on for fun and in my spare time between work and school! So I'm sorry if updates are slow but I'm, planning on actually getting this story finished and not get put on Hiatus like all my other ones (sorry guy's). This story is heavily AU based but with comic hints, as well as dealing with adult content and mental illnesses. Thank you for reading! Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

Her days were predictably the same: get up at a reasonable time and _try_ to work out; then get ready to head to her 10:30 am classes, which somedays was still too early. Run back to her apartment then head down to her first job till 6, go home for an hour and a half and then make it to her last job that started at 8 but didn't end until 1 or 2 in the morning depending.

At this point of her life, Amy Rose regularly only slept 6 hours, which isn't great for functioning for everyday activities. She wasn't even positive if she had gotten her assignments done for today that she needed to.

Amy stopped her early morning jog, panting as she was outside a café she frequented often. She doubled over, resting her hands on her knees as her earbud's wire dangled in front of her and sweat dripped off her brow. She stood up finally, wiping the sweat with her arm and then stretching the tired and achiness from her body that started to settle over her.

She saw a familiar face in the café, and the badger behind the counter smiled and waved at her from inside. Amy smiled and waved back to the female named Sticks, who was an eccentric friend that had conspiracy theories about conspiracy theories. She was fun to talk too, but unfortunately their shifts didn't overlap often, so most days after her jog Amy would come in, buy a coffee and a little treat, and talk with Sticks for a while.

Unfortunately, today wasn't that day, Amy's homework was bothering her more so than usual, so she turned to run back down the street towards her apartment building. It was that moment though that she ran into the open door of the café, slamming all her body weight into it as it clashed with someone else on the other side.

A low grunting sound escaped, but it wasn't from her. Amy blinked, looking through the glass door to see a hedgehog wincing, holding the door away from him as he was favoring the side of his head that obviously hit the door.

Amy gasped, noticing he was also holding a coffee cup to go. Her heart dropped.

"I'm so sorry," she said quickly. Coming in front of him and making sure that aside from his head the man wasn't hurt. There was a bit of a coffee spill but it was only on the ground, no dry cleaning needing to be offered.

She looked up to him, he was rubbing the side of his head and a part of his ear, obviously not expecting to be hit with a door this early in the morning. He was a black hedgehog, with tanned fur on his muzzle and strange red stripes on his quills, there was even red outlines around his eyes.

She had never seen a hedgehog with coloring like his before, but then again pink furred hedgehog's weren't exactly a dime-a-dozen either.

"I have some pain killers if your head is hurting you," she offered slowly, clasping her hands together in front of her in her sort of apology.

He opened his eyes finally, a stark and piercing red that glowed like embers. Amy was un-phased though, still determined to help this poor hedgehog out. He frowned at her, looked down at his clothes, and sighed.

"Don't bother," he moved past her, the door closing behind him as he walked down the street.

Amy blinked in astonishment, but then rolled her eyes. She _is_ in a big city; people have to get to work. She's just lucky she didn't get any coffee on his shirt.

"I'm still sorry!" She called after him, his ear flicked a little bit as he walked away, checking his watch as he picked up the pace a bit.

Amy turned and ran back down the sidewalk towards her apartment to make sure that her homework for today was completed correctly, the interaction already gone from her mind by the time she made it in her front door.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

The problem with mornings like these was that Amy didn't have a lot of time to review _everything_ she was working on, and so she looked over the research paper she had finished in her half-asleep state when she got home this morning after work, and nearly cried at how many mistakes there were—and she didn't have time to rewrite it.

Amy sighed in frustration, rubbing at her eyes that suddenly felt exhausted. Everything recently had felt exhausting, and in the end, she's kept asking herself: "Is it worth it?"

She glanced to the clock on her stove, the flashing numbers mocking her. Amy sighed, sitting down at her computer and emailing her professor and explaining that she'll get a copy of the assignment in by the end of the day. Promise.

The sound of her cell phone ringing made her jump a little, but only slightly. It was Cream, of course, calling her every morning at the same time so they could commute to school together like they have been since first being roommates together 4 years ago, in fact it was Amy who helped Cream get her job.

" _Are you on your way?_ " the voice on the other side of line said, not a hello or any other sort of greeting; just a question. Amy hummed, shimmying into a clean pair of black leggings and stuffing her wallet and an umbrella in her backpack along with her laptop and what books she needed for the day.

"Yes, I'm on my way, I'll meet you at the bus stop like usual ok?"

The voice on the other side of the line sighed, " _ok but hurry up, I got you breakfast._ "

Amy smiled, a moment's worth of the panic in her heart subsiding as she appreciated the friend she had on the other side of the line.

"Thanks Cream, you really are my favorite bunny." Kissing sounds could be heard coming from the other side of the line, and Amy laughed as she hung up and got the last few remaining things she needed for the day together.

Amy slung her bag over her shoulder, gathered her keys and phone, and left her apartment for the day.

* * *

The bus stop that she meets Cream at is really only outside her apartment, which is only a few down from Cream's as well. Even though the two don't live together they live rather close to each other. After the first year on campus that was required of out of town freshman, they realized that they were good friends but not good roommates, so they had chosen to live near each other but not actually _with_ each other to save their sanity.

Cream was waiting as usual, bundled up in her coat even though it was a nice summer morning with a little bag with a familiar logo on it from the café down the street.

Amy leaned against Cream, looking down at what Cream was looking at on her phone. Amy blushed, deeply.

Cream shrugged at the look that Amy had given her, "what? You shouldn't have been looking."

"Well," Amy started, her argument faulting on her lips. " _Why_ do you have something like that saved to your phone?" Cream shrugged again, her pig tails bouncing against her shoulders and her long ears swayed. Amy studied Cream harder, looking up and down her frame. She looked disinterested as usual, but Cream was naturally a sweet and caring girl, so the disinterested look was so that other people on the street wouldn't bother her. She was wearing shorts to accommodate for the warm morning and hot day, even though she was bundled up in a coat, and her new sneakers she had bought a few weeks ago that were still looking fresh from the store. Amy studied the hat that sat on Cream's head, it was the same tattered blue one she wore every day.

"Bangs!" Amy said suddenly and loudly, making the elderly walrus women next to them huff and shuffle farther away from the two. Cream had jumped at the sudden noise as well and looked at Amy expectantly. "You got bangs!"

"Shhh, _Amy_." Cream whispered harshly, she tucked the few stray hairs back under her hat. "I visited my mom over the weekend and she insisted on cutting my hair for me." Cream had crossed her arms and looked off to the side with a heavy blush on her cheeks. "I have an appointment after class to fix it, is it bad?"

The tears in Cream's eye made Amy want to roll hers. "Cream, Hun, it's fine. It's only because I know you so well that I knew something was off." Amy patted Cream's cheek, grabbing the bag of food when she did so she could eat on the bus.

Cream sighed, composing herself so she didn't ruin her light application of makeup she did everyday to hide the bags under her eyes. Truth be told, it worked very well. Cream was very talented when it came to makeup effects, cover up, and just makeup in general—in fact Cream is the reason she has red fur every night, if it wasn't for her at least and contact lenses to change up Amy's appearance just enough to not be identifiable at first glance.

"Cream that reminds me, when this term ends let's go shopping for more red fur cream that doesn't stain so much."

"What? Amy, we weren't talking about makeup." Cream deadpanned, Amy blushed, rubbing her arm that was covered by her hoodie.

"Oh right, sorry- I was just kinda lost in thought. Anyways, yeah? Red fur cream? And maybe can you teach me how to put it on so if you're not at work again I'm not getting out late and Carrotia isn't stuck trying to help me and cursing me the entire nine yards." Amy rolled her eyes, pushing her bangs up and rubbing her head.

"Amy, you've gotta remember that the only mind reader around here is you." Cream said softly and smiled. Amy smiled back.

"You're right, just one thing led to another."

"I get it, and yeah we can even go tomorrow to look for some." The bus approached the stop, and the small crowd that had congregated there shuffled onto the bus and into the respected seats. The elder walrus women huffed at a young bat who had sat down in the last available seat. Amy cleared her throat and gestured for Cream and her to stand so the elder woman could have their seat.

The elder woman nodded respectfully to the two young women and sat down, she had dug through her purse briefly and produced two strawberry flavored candies for the young ladies.

"Nice," Cream said softly, popping the candy in her mouth as she held on to the overhead system when the bus started moving. Amy, who had a weird knack for standing on moving objects and not losing her balance, jerked slightly but only shifted her weight to the other foot and re-centered her balance.

Cream, having been used to Amy's unnatural ability for balance, didn't give her a questioning look. Other Mobians on the other hand, even the elder walrus woman, gave Amy a side ways glance. Although, throughout this, Amy was oblivious as she was eating her breakfast that Cream had gotten for her and was looking through her phone- not hanging on to the straps provided of course.

"Amy, I still don't understand how you can do that." Cream said lowly, glancing at her friend. Amy shrugged, her mouth full. "Like, you never trip or fall unless you do it on purpose. What is with that? You have such a weird abundance of skills—like, are you a ninja or something?"

Amy choked on her food then, her eyes watering as she swallowed it down finally and gave Cream a glare. "No," her voice was hoarse, and she cringed slightly. "I'm not a _ninja_."

Cream pursed her lips and gave Amy a judgmental stare, slowly she turned her head to look back down at her phone, casting glances at Amy throughout the duration of the bus ride. Amy rolled her eyes, glancing towards the road and reading the signs they passed by.

The bus jerked suddenly and slowed to a stop hard. Cream stumbled a bit from the motion, and right into Amy—who didn't move. She supported Cream and helped the rabbit stand back up, and then glanced out the front window. It was a line of traffic with police blocking off one lane, caution tape around the front of two buildings and their shared alley.

Amy watched the scene as the bus inched by, there were many Mobians in their uniforms with their squad cars flashing their lights, and then there was a flash of a familiar Mobian. Amy quickly smacked Cream's arm and pointed to the yellow furred Mobian who had their purple tied up in a tight bun.

"Doesn't that look like-" Amy started, looking down at Cream who seemed bewildered but then frowned, turning her back to the scene as they passed it by.

"No, there's lots of creatures with yellow fur, Amy." Cream said rather pointedly, Amy frowned down at her friend, but then looked back at the familiar looking Mobian—but Cream was right, you couldn't see their face, so who knows who it was.

"You're right." Amy mumbled, turning away from the scene. She didn't even absorb what could've happened, but there were theories being whispered about on the bus, phones being pulled out and News Stations being contacted even though they were less than 15 feet past it.

Their stop came up fast, even though in reality it didn't exactly. As they got off the bus and Amy re-shouldered her bag to be more comfortable, she pointed out: "It would've been faster to walk this morning than take the bus."

Cream rolled her eyes, adjusting her hat and hiding herself farther in her coat. "You can walk if you want, personally I'm sore from last night."

Amy shivered, the image from earlier coming back to mind. "I can't believe you went home with that guy-"

Cream shrugged, "In all honesty me too, it was kinda disappointing, he was so _tall_ and _handsome_."

Amy sighed, hip checking her friend so hard that Cream went flying into the nearby bushes with a brief shriek.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"You're a bitch, Amy." Cream grumbled as she sat down next to Amy in their only shared class of the term, a psychology class- even though they were going for two different types of degrees. Amy couldn't help the small amused smile as she glanced adoringly at her friend, who was glowering at her with a leaf still tucked under her hat.

"I never asked you to be my friend," Amy countered, leaning over and picking the leaf off her hat.

"You didn't make it easy _not_ to be though, baking me things all the time. Making sure I drank enough water when I may have partied too hard-" Cream blushed, an uneasy look passing over her face briefly. "You really took care of me when I didn't have anyone to look out for me anymore, and I kinda got carried away with that and maybe have not made the best decisions in life," Amy's critical look made her stop. Cream tensed as her blush rose higher.

"- _Well it's true_ ," she said quickly and quietly. Completely embarrassed. "I just really _appreciate_ you, ok? And all you've done to help me when I first started college and you were new to town, but you fell right in like you've always belonged here. I try to just keep up with you, Amy."

The pink hedgehog was no longer smiling, and instead she was glancing down at the pencil and paper that sat out in front of her on the desk of the lecture hall. Their professor came in after a minute, but still Amy hadn't responded.

Cream still didn't know Amy Rose's history, and It's not like she was very famous in the first place, of course.

Amy hadn't gotten anything from the lesson, mindlessly taking notes throughout it. She was too lost in thought to absorb the information.

For some reason she had felt initially guilty because she had unknowingly adopted back into her role she had back when she fought alongside Sonic, because hadn't she gotten away from there to reinvent herself in the first place?

Although, she had always cared about people. Maybe that's just who she was? And if so, then wasn't this all a waste of time?

Amy had stopped listening over an hour ago and had escaped into the hall way when the class went on a 15-minute break. It was a two-hour class, thankfully her last one for the day.

She had found an alcove to sit for a minute without being disturbed and laid her head in her hands, breathing deeply to calm herself down.

So many thoughts racing, each conflicting against the other.

 _'I should be happy that I have a friend like Cream, I've accomplished so much since I've been here'_

 _'But did I really need to leave if I'm still the same person I was? I've ruined what friendships I did have, I haven't visited home in ages. I've missed Tails' birthday, Knuckles and Rouge's engagement. I've missed so much, is this really worth it?'_

 _'You're going to improve someone's life, Amy! You can do this!'_

 _'But I've already done this, why am I wasting my time?'_

"You shouldn't let intrusive thoughts get to you like that," a voice said, but it took a minute before Amy responded because at first she thought it was just in her head.

She lifted her head quickly and stared wide eyed into the alcove she had bunkered down in. It was then that she noticed a figure manifest from the darkness.

He was a purple chameleon with a yellow horn and what seemed like glowing yellow eyes, he was wearing a black button up shirt with the arms rolled up and rather nice-looking slacks. He seemed to be a bit disheveled, like he had just gotten off work or something.

"I didn't realize I was talking out loud," Amy said quietly, the chameleon gave her a sympathetic smile and held his hand out to help her stand up.

"Aside from also barging in on _my_ hiding alcove. And it's not that you were talking out loud, you just have loud thoughts. If you were talking out loud I would suspect Mrs. Leopard in there would love to grind you for questions." He had said all the while pulling Amy to her feet, their hands still connected.

She had smiled at him, "I'm Amy, sorry for barging in on your hiding spot."

"Espio, and I have to say I was rather well hidden." He said as he smiled cheekily, his form slowly vanishing before her eyes. Amy's eyes widened in response, but she could still feel his hand in hers as he shook it. His form came back.

"That's a fun party trick," Amy commented, brushing her leggings off and tugging her sweatshirt back down to cover her tail.

"How did you know I was the life of the party?" He wiggled his non-existent eyebrows, and Amy snorted.

"Didn't you know?" She started off, smiling largely, "you have loud thoughts."

Espio blinked at her in bewilderment, before snorting at her and rolling his eyes.

"It's refreshing to have someone new to talk to," Espio started, dropping her hand. "Glad you invaded my space." Amy smiled.

"Glad to be a pleasant annoyance for once," she laughed at her own joke, but Espio didn't. Her smile didn't falter, instead she gestured her head towards the room. "Don't want to miss the last part of the lesson, right?"

"Right." He nodded, trailing behind her as she left the alcove and headed back into the lecture hall.

Espio ducked into a row near the front of the hall, while Amy trailed up to where her and Cream were by themselves, something Amy suddenly realized and didn't know how well it sat with her.

"You were gone for a while, everything ok?" Cream asked her, not looking up from her phone as she was texting herself assignments to get done for the day once she gets home.

"Yeah, I accidentally stumbled into someone's hiding spot when I was kinda having a mini break down, but we joked about it and now I think we're kinda friends?" Amy said, recounting with her fingers of the order the events happened. She tapped her chin while Cream looked at Amy dumbfounded.

"What?"

"Amy, you confuse the hell out of me all the time." Cream shook her head, at Amy's curious stare Cream sighed. "You can turn any encounter into a conversation and make immediate friends with that person, like—you're such a people person, Amy."

"Is that… a bad thing?" She asked slowly, looking down at the teacher at the front of the room and slides that flashed on the board.

"In some ways it's irritating, but in other ways it's really comforting that there's someone like you in a city like this." Amy looked over at Cream then, seeing the rabbit slouched in her chair with her arms crossed and looking disinterested as always. Cream glanced over at Amy once she saw the pink hedgehog was looking at her, Cream's hazel eyes shining even though the lighting was horrible. "You make me want to be a better version of myself, Ames. That's why I switched major's halfway into my Sophomore year and why I'm so far behind in my degree now."

Amy tapped her chin, not wanting to hide how that comment made her heart tear into two different directions.

"Speaking of, I'm glad your mom wasn't upset by that, considering since she's paying the bulk of your tuition."

Cream pointedly looked at the front of the room then, "don't remind me."

And of course, Amy stopped talking, leaning back as well, but Cream had slouched lower.

* * *

Amy sighed, deciding to walk the only, what, 5 blocks back to her apartment? It wasn't too far, and she didn't want to deal with the bus again.

The walk was uneventful, one foot after the other and her mind wandering dangerously. She slapped her cheeks a few times, breathing deep to try to get her mind back on track. What was going on with her? Why was she so conflicted about herself and her decisions? Was she sick?

Amy tapped her chin along with her foot as she thought, because come to think of it she had been feeling rather weird since last Christmas when she had gotten that postcard from Rouge and Knuckles announcing their engagement to her.

Amy realized that she felt disconnected from everything, like she was living in a colorless world and everything was muted, and that realization made her heart beat faster and her feet start pounding on the sidewalk just to get home.


	5. Author's Note

_**A/N:**_ Hey there everyone, sorry to get your hopes up for an update. I'll properly be in hiatus for a while due to some complications that have arisen in my life and other projects that need my dire attention. I'll try to be back as soon as I can, but I don't expect to update any of my work till at least 2019. I'm sorry for the inconvenience and I will try to be back sooner. However, I will be working on a few stories during my time when I can manage it, so hopefully when I do come back I can update and maybe even finish a few stories.

Thanks for being awesome readers, reviewers and favoriters, and thanks for understanding.

8Calrify8


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